Ed's Technobabble

So I think this is a funny thing. I went to get my haircut. The girl and I start talking.. she asks what I do. I say that I’m a systems engineer, and soon after, she gets very excited and starts telling me she’s a closet Star Trek fan. I also learn that she has this Star Trek costume for Halloween. Why? Because I’m a computer guy, which means I automatically love all things Star Trek. Funny thing is, that I like a good sci-fi show. I like stuff like Dr Who, Ghostbusters, etc.. But I never really got that much into the whole Star Trek thing. She then starts asking me what I think of Star Trek Voyager, and honestly, I haven’t got a clue. I think it’s the one with the female commander. After realizing that I have no clue what she’s talking about, she says that she only brings it up because she thinks I look like one of the dudes from it. Of course I have to look it up when I get home. The dude is First Officer Chakotay (Robert Beltran). I guess I’ll take that as a complement.

A friend from work asked, “why haven’t you updated your blog?” “oh yeah, I have a blog…” So there has been something I wanted to blog about.. And that is the state of music today. Back in my day, (crap, I’m too young for back in my day. I’m only in my 30s) Back in my day, there was a thing called talent. Singers and musicians did something called perform. By performing, they created music. Also back then they would do some pitch correction in the studio, but it was a lot of work. And then “in 1997, Antares Audio Technologies developed revolutionary pitch-correction software called Auto-Tune” (Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04312/406807.stm ) This allowed record companies to easily “fix” bad performances. This also allowed bad artists to sound as if they had talent. Example below: Please note that this will be the first and last time I post Cher on my blog. Words I never thought I’d ever say. So here we are today. Auto-tune isn’t something people are asha

Just to put in perspective how much of an upgrade this is, CS4 is Photoshop 11. I’ve been holding off buying a new version of Photoshop for some time, because… We’ll it’s quite expensive. Since I’m going to school at Washington State University (go cougs!!!), I was able to pick it up at a discounted rate. I bought it about a month ago, and this weekend finally got around to doing something with it. I did a few photo restorations for my wife. My grandfather-in-law had a box of pictures that he has been giving out to family members, but the problem is that some were damaged. Perfect opportunity for Photoshop CS4! This was the original photo. It had a bit of water damage, but I was able to turn it into this: Not too bad I think. And it was fun to do. CS4 is so much better that 7.0 that I was laughing at how I’ve lived without it all these years. Was I insane? Why didn’t I get this 2 years ago! Thanks Adobe. Now just work on the cost. I’ll be another 6-8 years before I buy t

I recently got Adobe Creative Suite 4 Web Premium. My god. It is good. I haven't got too far in the weeds, but it does everything. I'm even blogging from Contribute at the moment. I think it's fair to say that nothing can touch Adobe products (sorry Microsoft).

Snowboarding and Wrestling?!??

I had one of these at work this week. It was pretty good. Pretty damn good. One of my co-workers asked what the 10, 2 and 4 mean. I had no clue. So I had to do a bit of research. Those well-known Dr Pepper numbers of 10, 2 and 4 weren’t selected at random. They represent the times of day when the human body needs a little “pick-me-up” to avoid an energy slump. It was in the 1920s that Dr. Walter Eddy at Columbia University studied the body’s metabolism. He discovered that a natural drop in energy occurs about 10:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. But he also discovered that if the people in his research study had something to eat or drink at 10, 2 and 4, the energy slump could be avoided. After Dr. Eddy’s research findings were released, Dr Pepper challenged its advertising agency to come up with a theme which would suggest that Dr Pepper should be that 10, 2 and 4 drink which would keep the energy level up. The result was one of the most enduring of Dr Pepper’s advertisin

uh… Yes. I don’t want to put my spin on it.. Here it is from ESPN . Sunnyside H.S. (Wash.) Wrestling In the school's wrestling room, a 15-year-old boy was allegedly sodomized with a mop handle while teammates held him down and dozens of other wrestlers watched. The attack sent the boy, bleeding and traumatized, to the hospital for a week. He suffered  internal injuries. Richard Melendrez, 18, pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless endangerment and was given 60 days in a work-release program. Second-degree rape charges that were pending against three others in juvenile court were reduced to fourth-degree assault. It must have been in the air. From the same year, same article: Johnson Creek H.S. (Wisc.) Wrestling Wrestlers admitted taping a teammate but denied sodomizing him with a mop handle, as the victim claimed. Four juveniles settled their cases out of court and two were acquitted. So back in the day this was big. Google “ Mop Handle

I run into this at least once a week. After the second time, I just go. It’s been over a month since my last blog. Things have been busy. I’ve now in my last semester at Washington State University. GO Cougs! Since I mentioned WSU, I had to post a gratuitous picture of the WSU marching band when we went to the Rose Bowl several years ago. This was a much better time for WSU football. However, we did have Ryan Leaf.